Shaun McRae column

THE big surprise in last weekend's Carnegie Challenge Cup last weekend was the performance of Hull FC under their new coach Richard Agar, who plotted the downfall of the Bradford Bulls. What we saw in this game was a very strong refereeing performance from Steve Ganson.

THE big surprise in last weekend's Carnegie Challenge Cup last weekend was the performance of Hull FC under their new coach Richard Agar, who plotted the downfall of the Bradford Bulls.

What we saw in this game was a very strong refereeing performance from Steve Ganson.

Now referees come in for a lot of criticism but at once stage in the first half we had four players in the sin-bin.

Ganson had repeatedly warned the teams if they continued to give away technical penalties, then he would start sin-binning players and he stayed true to his word.

The sin-binning of Jamie Thackray was slightly different in that it was for dissent.

As Ganson made clear at the time, this is not football. Our officials won't take any backchat and Thackray was swiftly dispatched the sin-bin.

In my opinion, this flurry of yellow cards cleaned the game up and we had a much better second half, with players adhering to the rules.

It was a fantastic achievement for my former club Hull and is another example of the effect a new coach can have when he first comes into a position. They will be looking to sustain that in Super League.

The other three games all went as I expected, with a cracking game worthy of the final taking place between Wigan and Leeds.

If many people would have liked to see that take place at Wembley, they will be further disappointed by the head-to-head of Leeds and St Helens in the semi-final.